Cold War Flashcards
Name the three grand alliances and the importance
Tehran (1943):
• Leaders: Stalin, Roosevelt, Churchill
• Agreements:
• USA + UK to open a second front in Western Europe
• USSR would fight Japan after Germany’s defeat
• Aim to create a United Nations
• Tensions:
• Churchill and Roosevelt disagreed over how to deal with Stalin
Yalta (Feb 1945):
• Leaders: Same as Tehran
• Agreements:
• Germany split into 4 zones (UK, USA, USSR, France)
• Free elections in Eastern Europe
• USSR joins war against Japan
• Tensions:
• Disagreement over Poland (Stalin wanted to control it)
Potsdam (July 1945):
• Leaders: Stalin, Truman (Roosevelt died), Attlee (Churchill lost election)
• Changes:
• Truman more suspicious of Stalin
• USA had tested the atomic bomb
• Tensions:
• Disagreements over German reparations and Eastern Europe
• Stalin began to dominate Eastern Europe
Events during the increasing tensions in 1945-1947
• USSR created satellite states in Eastern Europe (e.g. Poland, Hungary)
• Elections were rigged or opposition crushed
• USSR claimed it was for security, West saw it as aggression
• Iron Curtain speech by Winston Churchill clarified division
• Increased distrust
Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan
Truman Doctrine (1947):
• Policy of containment (stop spread of communism)
• USA would help countries under threat from communism (e.g. Greece, Turkey)
• Significance:
• Marked end of USA’s isolationism
• Increased East-West division
Marshall Plan (1947):
• Offered $13 billion to help rebuild Europe
• Aim: stop countries from turning to communism due to poverty
Comecom and Cominform
Cominform (1947):
-A political organisation set up by Stalin.
-Set up to directly control and monitor the government.
Comecon (1949):
-Council for mutual economic assistance
-Provide aid for communist parties
-Set up 2 years after the Marshall Plan
Berlin crisis- Blockade and Airlift
AIRLIFT:
Began on 28th of June 1948 and lasted 10 months
Western pilots flew food, coal and other necessities
Stalin called off Blockade, propaganda victory backfired and he looked unwise and aggressive
BLOCKADE:
In June 1948, Stalin shut off land routes across Soviet controlled Germany into Berlin
Trizonia no longer able to communicate with Berlin, Berliners would run short of food
Stalin hoped for Western Allies to give up control, direct challenge to Truman Doctrine
NATO and the Warsaw Pact
NATO:
In April 1949, Western countries joined together in a treaty organisation
Agreed if any other member was attacked, all members of NATO would come to its assistance
WARSAW PACT:
In May 1955, Soviet Union formed an equivalent communist defence military alliance
Khrushchev’s ultimatum
Khrushchev demanded the Western Allies to recognise East Germany as an independent country and forced them to leave in order to:
-Apply pressure on Western Allies
-To avoid confrontation and hot war with the West
The U-2 incident
In May 1960, American U2 spy-plane was shot down after flying over the USSR
Pilot Gary Powers admitted he had been sent on a spy mission
Eisenhower refused to apologise- increased tensions
Vienna Summit
Construction and consequences of the Berlin Wall
-Constructed in August 1961
-On the 12th of August East German Troops built a barbed wire fence between East and West Berlin
-Construction of two walls began separated by ‘no mans land’ which was packed with booby traps and guarded with lookout towers and machine guns.
-Over 130 people were killed
CONSEQUENCES- Berliners no longer able to travel to their workplace, and divided communities and families
The Thirteen Days
16th October- Kennedy called together an ExComm including hawks who favoured force and doves who favoured peaceful methods
22nd October- Kennedy set up a ‘quarantine zone’, a naval blockade around Cuba so that no ships would be allowed to pass through without US permission.
23rd October-Kennedy received a letter from Khrushchev saying he will force his way through. Kennedy perceived this as an act of war and prepared for a full scale invasion
24th October- Soviet ships reached blockade and turned around
25th October- US spy planes reported there had been increased building work at missile sites in Cuba
26th October- Khrushchev sent Kennedy a telegram offering to remove missiles if Americans agreed to lift the blockade
27th October- US spy plane was shot down by soviet missile and a soviet submarine was shot down by a US navy vessel. Another telegram from Moscow was sent to Kennedy
Czechoslovakia
Due to the fear of the Prague Springs weakening communism and spreading to other satellite states and the leader of Czechoslovakia, Tito, planning to make his country independent from the USSR, Brezhnev ordered 500,000 Warsaw Pact troops to invade in order to restore control.
CONSEQUENCES-
Brezhnev Doctrine was issued on 26th of September-According to Doctrine the invasion was necessary in order to protect communism and the USSR had the right to intervene using force.
Other communist parties began to distant themselves from the USSR- communist parties in Spain, Italy and France declared themselves separate from the soviets communist party and created a new form of communism called ‘eurocommunism’
SALT I and II
SALT I- May 1972
An attempt to limit the number of nuclear weapons and slow down the arms race.
Signed by President Nixon and Soviet Premier Brezhnev
Recognised the need to protect the nuclear balance by ensuring that neither side would be immune from retaliation
CONSEQUENCES- ABM Treaty signed, Each side was allowed to use satellites to check the other was not breaking the arms limit
SALT II- 1979
President Carter and President Brezhnev signed a highly complex agreement restricting the development of certain weapons
CONSEQUENCES- Failure to ratify the treaty, end of détente due to the soviet union invading Afghanistan.,
Helsinki Accords
Afghanistan invasion and its impact
Carter Doctrine and Olympic boycotts
Reagan and the “Evil Empire” speech
Increased defence spending, SDI (Star Wars) and its importance
INCREASED SPENDING-
Reagan increased spending on arms by 13% in 1982 and a following 8% in 1983
Developed weapons such as stealth bombers and tridents
IMPORTANCE-
Decrease in relations
USSR concerned about the US reigniting the arms race as USSR were not financially capable
A new policy by Ronald Reagan to place satellites in space to orbit earth and shoot down soviet missiles with lazers
US did not have this technology but made other believe they did
IMPORTANCE-
Decline in trust, US broke outer space treaty
Influenced Gorbachev’s ‘new thinking’ and attempts to rebuild relations with US
Propaganda victory for US
Gorbachev’s reforms:
Gorbachev wanted to maintain the USSR’s position as a superpower but recognised the difficulties that the country was facing so he introduced a radical programme of reform known as ‘new thinking’.
Introduced:
Perestroika- meaning reconstruction- economy should be reformed to included practises that made capitalism successful
Glasnot- meaning transparency- allowed criticism of the government
Brezhnev Doctrine- necessity to protect the unity of communism- would be dropped
Fall of the Berlin Wall (1989)
Collapse of the Soviet Union (1991)
What was the impact of NATO and The Warsaw Pact on the cold war?
-Europe was split into two formal alliances
-Heightening fears of future conflict
-Warsaw Pact showed Stalin was prepared to defend communism by force
-Triggered an arms race
Consequences of the arms race
MAD Theory- Mutually Assured Destruction
-Arms race reduced the chance of direct conflict due to the nuclear deterrent
Large sums of money spent on nuclear weapons
Refugee Crisis
